[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

# floating point support (was Re: suspend())

- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 13:50:17 PST
- From:
- Encoding: 33 TEXT

    Pavel writes:
    > (I just have to finish integrating HPA's floating-point support,
    > a task which is going well and is more than half done.)

    [...since I don't know exactly what's in HPA's floating-point support,
     I'll just insert a random plea and/or hope that HPA did it right...]

    Whatever you do, please do *NOT* put in implicit coercions.
    For example, in

      a = 5.0;
      b = 3;
      c = a / b;

    the third line should be throwing an error.  It may seem convenient to have
    an implicit coercion in there, but in the long run this will lead to
    error-prone
    code with truncations silently occurring where you least expect them.

    People seem to have this idea that, because integers can be viewed as a
    subSET
    of the reals, that integers, as a datatype, should be a subTYPE of the
    real/float
    datatype, and it just ain't so... (capsule summary:  it's not the sets of
    elements
    that matters so much as the sets of OPERATIONS that you want to be able to
    use;
    sin is not a sensible operation to use on integers ($trig_utils
    notwithstanding),
    nor is % a sensible operation to use on floats; end of story).

Follow-Ups:

- Re: floating point support (was Re: suspend())

- From: hpa@trantor.storm.net (H. Peter Anvin)

- Prev: floating point math...
- Next: Re: floating point support (was Re: suspend())
- Index: MOO-cows
- Thread: MOO-cows

Home | Subject Index | Thread Index